"Knowing" leaves viewers doing the opposite (* ½)
Ryan Anderson
Issue date: 4/21/09 Section: Entertainment
In 1959, a class at William Dawes Elementary was asked to draw pictures of their vision of the future for a time capsule to be dug up in 50 years. All the students draw a myriad of items; space ships, flying cars, and robots. Except for one particular student, who simply writes down a string of arbitrary numbers. Fifty years later, after the digging up of the time capsule, those numbers come into the possession of Caleb Koestler (Chandler Canterbury), son of John Koestler (Nicolas Cage). Koestler is raising Caleb by himself after his wife perished in a hotel fire a year prior. Now, after examining the numbers, he realizes that, despite being buried for 50 years, they have accurately predicted every single major disaster within that time period. There are 3 more left on the list, and it's up to him to stop them.
This is the setup of "Knowing", the newest big-budget thriller to hit theaters. It presents an interesting question: What would you do if you knew the exact date and time of the end of the world? What could you do? Evidently, the writers of this film aren't sure, as evidenced by the undeniable clunkiness of this screenplay, in which the characters rush from place to place spouting faulty logic to back the inane plot devices. Because along the way John and his son meet up with Dina Wayland (Rose Byrne) and her daughter Abby Wayland (Lara Robinson), who they believe hold the key to the girl who wrote the numbers.
Nicolas Cage gives a good performance here and he should, especially given that this is about his 4th film in a matter of years in which his character is forced to follow a series of clues or work off of a code. Likewise, Rose Byrne plays a convincing and in-depth female lead, only being outdone by Lara Robinson's terrific performance as her daughter. Eleven-year-old Chandler Canterbury, however is a different story. He glides through scenes in a wide-eyed daze; occasionally hitting on a tone of sincerity. And not to sound vitriolic towards someone who's had so little time to perfect their craft, but he fails to achieve the "creepy little boy" angle that worked so well in "The Ring" (2002).
This is the setup of "Knowing", the newest big-budget thriller to hit theaters. It presents an interesting question: What would you do if you knew the exact date and time of the end of the world? What could you do? Evidently, the writers of this film aren't sure, as evidenced by the undeniable clunkiness of this screenplay, in which the characters rush from place to place spouting faulty logic to back the inane plot devices. Because along the way John and his son meet up with Dina Wayland (Rose Byrne) and her daughter Abby Wayland (Lara Robinson), who they believe hold the key to the girl who wrote the numbers.
Nicolas Cage gives a good performance here and he should, especially given that this is about his 4th film in a matter of years in which his character is forced to follow a series of clues or work off of a code. Likewise, Rose Byrne plays a convincing and in-depth female lead, only being outdone by Lara Robinson's terrific performance as her daughter. Eleven-year-old Chandler Canterbury, however is a different story. He glides through scenes in a wide-eyed daze; occasionally hitting on a tone of sincerity. And not to sound vitriolic towards someone who's had so little time to perfect their craft, but he fails to achieve the "creepy little boy" angle that worked so well in "The Ring" (2002).
Be the first to comment on this story